Baku GP 2008 (Baku), 2008
|
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen! It is me, GM Sergei Shipov, doing live commentary
for the Baku Grand Prix - 2008. We are enjoying second round of Baku 2008 and today, 22/04/08, we'll
first have a look at Grischuk playing White against his young colleague Karjakin. The games of the second
round: Kamsky vs Navara, Adams vs Cheparinov, Bacrot vs Radjabov, Wang Yue vs Gashimov, Svidler vs Carlsen,
Inarkiev vs Mammedyarov. 1.d4 Grischuk has a choice of two moves... 1...d5 2.c4 c6 The Slav Defence. 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 This is the Anti-Moscow Gambit. It's the most popular line amongst all ambitious practitioners. Despite the effort of theorists, the gambit move is still quite a puzzle. The situation is getting tense. 6...dxc4 7.e4 g5 An important move. 8.Bg3 b5 Unlike in the Botvinnik Variation, White is unable to start a counter attack. Blacks wins a pawn but weakens his queenside. But it's only the beginning of the research in this set of variants. 9.Ne5 Bb7 Sergey deviates from the path he went before, against the same opponent. | |
|
[In Grischuk-Karjakin, Odessa (rapid) 2008 there was played 9...h5 10.h4 g4 11.Be2 Bb7 12. | |
|
10.h4 Whites is immediately attacking
the weak points in Black's camp. It's important to keep the initiative - if you miss the moment - you
lose! 10...Rg8 Visually speaking this is the most logical defence. | |
|
[In practice we usually encounter 10...g4 - the idea of this move is to give back the pawn to gain some tempi for development.] | |
|
11.hxg5 hxg5 The
rook on h1 is fully developed now, without having made a single move. According to my megabase, in the
current position Black has only managed to draw a few times - and not bad players: Rodriguez (2464),
Rothstein (2615) and Peres Candelario (2537). I recon Karjakin has done some serious studying and his
analysis can overcome any statistics and disprove all established assessments. Grischuk knows this for
sure and this is why he spends more time thinking... 12.Nxf7 A dangerous move! 12...Kxf7 13.e5 By chasing away the knight from f6 White can start attacking with queen and rook, and that is one step forward... I hope the readers are familiar with works of the Strogatski brothers? This might be an exaggeration yet I would not like it to be this way. I hope those who have not read "Roadside Picnic" will be able to understand the context of the game. 13...Nd5  Karjakin
is playing rather fast, demonstrating his deep preparation. The move is a novelty as well. | |
|
[Changing the defenders doesn't help: 13...Nbd7 14.exf6 Nxf6 15.Be5!] | |
|
[The game Pashikian vs Rodshtein, Yerevan 2007 went as follows 13...Bb4 14.exf6 Rh8 15.Rh5 Nd7 16.Rxg5 Qxf6 17.Rg4 Ke7 18.Qd2 Rag8 19.Rf4 Qg5 20.Nd5+ Qxd5 21.Qxb4+ c5 22.Qxb5 Bc6 23.Qa6 cxd4 24. | |
| 14.Rh7+ Bg7 | |
|
[Not good is 14...Rg7? because of 15.Qh5+ Ke7 16.Qxg5+!] | |
|
15.Qh5+ Kf8
16.Qf3+ Ke8 Black
is fighting for his live, but so far he seems to be safe. 17.Qh5+ | |
|
[Obviously the only way to avoid the draw is 17.Ne4 after which Black can improve his position with 17...Qe7 18.Nd6+ Kd8 and the king moves to safer waters. It's rather difficult to find constructive move for White here.] | |
|
17...Kf8 18.Qf3+
Ke8 19.Qh5+ No
options. It is a draw! Today we had an interesting but very short game. The path was very dangerous -
the young rivals decided to take no risks. Now it's time for analists to look at Karjakin's new idea.
The first impression is that he rehabilitated the 10... Rg8 move - possible the new main line of the
Anti-Moscow Gambit! Further analysis will show the truth... Dear ladies and gentlemen, this game was
commented for you by GM Sergei Shipov, see you tomorrow! 1/2-1/2 | |